Kevin McCall

An initial afterthought on Chris Brown & Tyga’s “Fan of a Fan” mixtape, Kevin McCall out-shined both headliners. He also is deep in the producing/writing game with hits like CB’s “Dueces” and Big Sean’s “What U Doin”.

Honorable Mentions

Cory Gunz/Lil Twist

Young Money’s representatives this year. Gunz definitely has the DNA to make it in the rap game. And I still think of this clip from The Carter Documentary whenever I hear Lil Twist. These 2 will be big over the next few years.

This year saw the continuing evolution of the mixtape from simple album-promo to legitimate work of art. In fact, the following mixtapes are better than a majority of artists’ studio albums. They are too hard to rank, so without further ado… in no particular order. I’ve also included a 3-song sample of my favorite tracks from each:

Wiz had a very good year rising to become one of the hottest artists of 2010. Along the way, he signed a major deal with Atlantic Records. This mixtape is by far his best cumulative effort of the year.

Another artist that signed a major deal in 2010 (Warner Bros. Records), and another mixtape with the quality of an album. XV’s The Kid With The Green Backpack should be one of the best albums of 2011. Still don’t understand how XXL forgot about Vizzy last year.

The newest mixtape to make the list, B.o.B’s May 25thmixtape could probably be included alongside No Genreas well. B.o.B is one of those artists who arguably puts out better mixtapes than studio albums.

Chris Brown’s In My Zone and In My Zone 2 as well as Tyga’s Well Done mixtape are noteworthy, but what pushes this tape over-the-top is its introduction of Kevin McCall to a larger audience. How long until Chris Brown officially signs with Young Money?

J. Cole’s third official mixtape release might just be his best yet – and the others are pretty good. Like many of the artists above, J. Cole’s upcoming studio album, Cole World, is one of the most anticipated releases of 2011.

Before we get any closer to 2011, use the random selection below as an update on the 10 artists featured in the 02.04.2010 post Artists To Watch ’10-’11. To qualify, artists couldn’t be on the ‘09-’10 post. In no particular order:

Here’s the list for this year. The only qualification is that you can’t be on my list from last year. That means your name can’t be Tyga, KiD CuDi, Charles Hamilton, Drake, Mickey Factz, Jae Millz, Wale or Willy Northpole (a pretty decent list). I’ve included some kind of demonstration for each artist, which could be a mixtape, mp3 or video. In no particular order:

Here is a list of my most played tracks in 2009. Every song on the list was downloaded in 2009. I know this somewhat skews it toward songs from earlier in the year, but it’s a pretty solid list nonetheless. Click on each track to download: